Instituto Buena Bista (IBB), Curacao shares an article through their Intervention IBB Magazine about the 2015 Tilting Axis conference, which took place on February 27-28 and brought together a number of contemporary arts initiatives from around the Caribbean along with a few international entities to devise an action plan for advancing the region’s creative sector. Read an excerpt from IBB co-founders Tirzo Martha and David Bade below:

First impression

David: To be honest, at first I had a prejudice of what the conference was going to be. Because of my past experiences, I grew accustomed to the fact that most of the time there was a lot of talking, less actions and very few tangible results. But within this short time of 2 days, this was not the case at all. The whole approach and the focus was to come to concrete and clear results. I think this was a good thing and I am positive about this. We had to take steps to get somewhere. They gave us cases we had to work on and present and come up with some real proposals. “Collaboration” and “exchange” are all very nice funding words, but they have been used so much that now they’re becoming empty words. I have every confidence that something will happen this time around.

Tirzo: Two things I find very important about the Tilting Axis conference:

The old guard and the usual faces were absent, and there was fresh blood there. That was refreshing, to have that fresh blood who are open to new ways, perspectives and visions. Another thing I found interesting was that it wasn’t about the artist as individual but about art itself. About the society, the added value of art for the society and how you can contribute to the development of art education and formation through social cultural art projects.

David: we sat in work groups or sub groups and got the questions: Are we just here to meet each other or will we do something from now on? They proposed to me too, now that next year we will have existed for 10 years, to let our art collection travel within the Caribbean region. Now our network has expanded with these new people, the idea to have our art travel in the region visiting all the different art platforms sounds very appealing.

Tirzo: Collaboration is not necessarily in one form only. It can also be to assist or to support. For example: a lot of art initiatives say they have a lack of financial means. They don’t have money for a website for example. To let some company make a website can costs thousands of dollars, but if for example we at IBB can make a website for another art initiative we can support each other in this way. We can exchange our services, knowledge and capacities to one another, as everyone is good at one thing. It’s much cheaper and by doing this we can also generate funds.

It was of great satisfaction to meet and speak with people from the French speaking islands, Martinique, and also to acknowledge the presence of a representative from the Dominican Republic.

Read the full article on Intervention IBB Magazine here.